Aboriginal Education Strategy

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:18): The Marshall Liberal government has invested significant funds in our Aboriginal Education Strategy 2019-2029. It is a 10-year strategy that seeks to lift educational outcomes and opportunities for Aboriginal learners across South Australia, seeing them have success in the early years, seeing them have success in schools and seeing them be on pathways towards achievement in life.

It was with great pride that I was able to share with the SACE Board CE last year the great news that last year, in 2020, despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, we indeed had record SACE completion for our Aboriginal learners here in South Australia. While that is great news for those learners in the upper secondary years, I can inform the house that we are making reforms to literacy in the early years and introducing clarity around early years literacy instruction, including phonics. Indeed, our phonics checks are showing that, as well as the uplift in the general figures for all students across South Australia, our Aboriginal young learners in year 1 are having among the most dramatic uplifts in their achievement in early years reading, which is great.

There are some other case studies in parts of the Aboriginal Education Strategy that today I would like to share with you and the house. They are important strategies and they bear retelling. I congratulate all of the team in the education department's Aboriginal education team who are working on these, as well as Aboriginal staff within our schools supporting our Aboriginal learners.

One of the initiatives is an expansion of the Workabout program, particularly to support Aboriginal young people in Port Lincoln, the Murraylands and southern and western metropolitan regions to make a successful transition from study to employment, training or further education. We have radically increased support to this great program. It offers a range of programs and services to support Aboriginal students. Through the Workabout Centre, Aboriginal students work towards SACE achievement, engage in career education and transition from school into training, employment and higher education.

In Port Lincoln, for example, the Workabout Centre is working with local industry. A foundation course to support transition to employment is the 5-Steps to Work Readiness program, delivered in a culturally safe and comfortable environment. It powers Aboriginal students as they prepare to enter employment.

Throughout last year, the centre has supported students to research and identify employment opportunities in their local area. It supports students to create industry-specific résumés, cover letters, job applications and preparations for interviews. Fourteen students enrolled in the Workabout Centre have now gained employment as a result of that program. Pathways have included a mixture of casual and seasonal work, local industry work within fishing and aquaculture industries, work intrastate and in retail and hospitality.

One of the programs I was particularly pleased to learn about when I was in Port Lincoln last year with the member for Flinders was the work being done on the English as an Additional Language or Dialect Hub. It is a comprehensive online course that builds the knowledge and practice of educators to teach Aboriginal EALD learners, raising awareness of Aboriginal learners who may be learning standard Australian English as an additional language or dialect, and supports department staff to understand Aboriginal English as a legitimate dialect in its own right and the significance of this dialect in regard to culture and identity for the speakers.

Can I tell you that for the staff and families who have already engaged with this program, it has been transformative in their empowerment as they are able to undergo their learning and their confidence as they interact with our schools. When I was in Port Lincoln, I was really pleased to learn about the work of Jodi Kennedy, the hub coach who is implementing a two-tier coaching role covering implementation of that online learning directly alongside supporting teachers to add depth and meaning to the online resources.

Jodi has been providing intensive support to Port Lincoln Primary School and Port Lincoln High School, including working with classroom teachers, focusing on the explicit teaching of writing and the use of EALD teaching strategies, support to the leadership and Aboriginal education team to co-plan whole-of-staff PLC sessions, and facilitating professional learning. It is having a big impact on many learners and many families, and I encourage all members to learn a bit about it.

I also want to commend to the house the Aboriginal Learner Achievement Leaders' Resource, which in September 2019 was distributed to all schools across South Australia. It is easy enough to find information about this but the work on data-informed planning, tracking and monitoring growth, assuring consistent high-quality classroom practice, rigorous evidence-based learning interventions, engaging Aboriginal families as partners in literacy and numeracy learning and promoting the continuity of learning is having an impact in many schools. I would be happy to provide further information through detailed briefings to interested members.